Scotsman Nico Carillo is a relative newcomer to the ONE Championship stage, having only fought on the promotion four times. Despite this, he has left a substantial impression on global Muay Thai fans. He has faced some of the biggest names and most experienced Thai legends on the promotion’s roster and has come away with an electric knockout victory in each one of his outings.
These devastating finishes have not only resulted in four massive performance bonuses, but they also earned him the #1 ONE Championship bantamweight contender ranking and, next January, a shot at reigning Muay Thai Champion, Superlek Kiatmoo9, for the coveted gold belt.
In the next few paragraphs, we are going to give you an introduction to ONE Championship’s next Bantamweight Muay Thai World Title challenger. We’ll give you a glimpse into his background, early career, and imposing fight style so that you’ll know exactly why Nico Carillo is hailed as the “King of The North” when he walks into the center ring at ONE 170 on January 24th.
Background
Carillo’s Muay Thai journey started at the age of 15 when he walked into Glasgow Boxing Academy for the first time. Three years later, in 2016, he made his ring debut and walked away with a unanimous points victory, paving momentum for many wins to come. He would later move to Deachkalek Muay Thai Academy and under the watch of coach, J.P. Gallacher, took the UK and Europe by storm.
Early Career
Prior to getting called up to ONE Championship’s global stage, Carillo had racked up a tremendous record of 23 wins, 3 losses, and a single draw.
During this run, Carillo developed his controlled and imposing Muay Mat style, fighting the likes of WMO European Champion, Mo Abdurahman, ISKA World Champion, Jack Kennedy, and even “The Man Who Yields To No One,” Seksan Or Kwanmuang.
For his efforts, he was rewarded with, among other accolades, both the WMO Welterweight World Title and the ISKA 65kg World Championship crown.
Carillo’s Fight Style
Nico has an intriguing Muay Mat style that bends expectations. Unlike many historic punch-dominant fighters such as Pornsanae Sitmonchai who defined the style at the turn of the millennium, Carillo is less of a bull in a shop and more of a drawn bow waiting for the right opportunity to unload his powerful hands.
This doesn’t mean that the Scotsman is hesitant, nor does it mean that he usually attempts to fire off the back foot. Instead, he meticulously stalks forward, slowly building pressure until his opponent is backed onto the ropes wherein, he confidently plants himself within their effective striking range and goads them into throwing the first strike. Once they’ve opened fire, Carillo springs his trap and unloads a short burst of devastating punches, mixing looping hooks with brutal straights that combined, often result in devastating knockdowns.
This spectacular method can be witnessed in its purest form in Carillo’s most recent bout against fellow Muay Mat, Saemapetch Fairtex, last July
While this tried and tested recipe has brewed many of Carillo’s iconic victories, this unique expression of the Muay Mat form doesn’t make him immune to the common weaknesses of the style such as counter leg-kicks.
When confronted with this common Muay Thai antidote to forward aggression, Carillo has a few tricks up his sleeve. The first of which is to switch gears and retreat. In doing so he tricks his opponent into charging forward where he allows them to build momentum before planting himself and returning fire with his trademark punches. It was this method that allowed him to stop Jack Kennedy within the opening round of their 2021 clash.
While backing up is a solid option to help you defend leg kicks and convince your opponent to take the aggressive role, you’ll need some more tricks up your sleeve if you are facing an intelligent or reserved fighter. Carillo unveiled several more tactics for overcoming defensive leg kicks when he faced former ONE World Champion, Nong-O Hama last December. Nong-O caused Carillo a world of trouble in the opening round of their clash by booting his leg off whenever he stepped forward to initiate an exchange. When retreating didn’t inspire Nong-O to throw caution to the wind, Carillo showed both his mettle and well-honed IQ by switching stances to confuse his opponent’s distancing, hopping to make blocking easier when he was on the front foot and changing tempo to make timing leg kicks unpredictable. Coupling these tricks with persistent forward pressure allowed him to eventually break through the former Champion’s defenses to land a fight-ending elbow midway through the second round. Watch Carillo’s phenomenal come-from-behind victory against Nong-O above.
In Summary
Many fighters get anointed with the title of “Phenomenon” but, in Nico Carillo’s case, this appears to be true. “The King Of The North,” is riding high on a 15-fight win streak in which his slightly unorthodox Muay Mat style has awarded him knockout victories over some of the greatest contenders on the ONE roster.
While he may have proved himself a worthy successor to the Bantamweight crown by defeating the former champion and a cohort of highly competitive rivals, Carillo’s toughest challenge still looms ahead of him.
Superlek Kiatmoo9 is not only a multi-sport world champion in the realm of martial arts, but his counter-kicking and impeccable defensive strategy has granted him the longest current win streak on the ONE roster for a reason.
Will Carillo’s extensive reach, powerful hands, and tricky range-closing tactics give him the skills needed to break through “The Kicking Machine’s” namesake weapon? Or will Superlek’s incredible timing and impeccable defensive strategies provide enough armor to stop the Scotsman from usurping his ONE bantamweight Muay Thai throne?
You’ll have to tune into ONE 170 on January 24th to find out!
You may also like:
Incredible Matchups That Could Be Waiting For Superlek In 2024/2025
